Evening lovelies! So I have been facing a bit of a struggle over the past week or so – it’s been a real struggle to find any sewing time. This is all to be blamed on celebrations for my 30th birthday!

I had the most amazing time though – and have crammed so much in. Much shopping, eating and drinking… I know, such a chore!

Anyway, as of next week I am back on the sewing – and healthy eating for that matter…

So I’ve had this top to blog for a while now. This was a really exciting piece to stitch up. Why you ask? Well, because this was my first ever venture into using jersey! And I think it all went pretty well 🙂

The pattern itself was another PDF, which I’m quite getting into using… perhaps even more so than paper patterns. I love Tilly’s patterns – they are always very clear and straightforward to use. And the fit of this was perfect! I opted for the simple plain version.

The fabric was a bit of a tricky one to sew – even just based on the randomness of the pattern. It has a tie-dye effect to the pattern, which runs in lines up and down the fabric, but not straight or even. I spent ages umming and erring over where to cut the top out. In the end I tried to find the most uniform secion that I could and kind of thought, oh well, it will be cool if it looks random!

My first experience with sewing jersey was surprisingly pain and swear-word free. I already had a walking foot for my sewing machine, so I made use of that. And I am also lucky to have shared use of my mother-in-law’s overlocker too. I prepped myself before starting to sew the jersey by watching a couple of YouTube videos as well as reading lots of top tips. One thing that really helped was just making sure that the fabric wasn’t draped off of the sewing machine while sewing. I kept it all together and tried to keep any pulling around to an absolute minimum. And I think that using the walking foot really helped too, rather than a normal zigzag foot.

I’m really pleased with the finished piece. I think it looks a little bit grungey, but with a lovely feminine fit. And I felt so proud for using jersey for the first time! High five to that.

Evening lovelies! Much excitement to show you my latest make. It’s a bit of a special one!

The pattern for this dress was one that I nabbed during my shopping spree at The Handmade Fair in September. It is a super cute Bettine dress by Tilly and the Buttons. I was sold on this as soon as I saw Tilly herself wearing one of these while on her stand at the fair.

And the fabric for this dress was very kindly sent to me from The-Stitchery in Lewes. It is a Kaffe Fassett cotton called Purple Ferns. The colour is stunning – and the batik style to the pattern is really gorgeous and eye-catching. This fabric was a dream to work with, as the cotton was so soft – and well behaved 🙂

I found the whole pattern really easy to make, and took no time at all to put together. There was one technique in this dress which was new to me though… inserting elastic. I really love it when I come across patterns with techniques which are new to me. I just see it as a fun way to learn something new. Anyway, inserting the elastic was no problem at all – especially as my mother-in-law had given me some little tools to insert elastic.

The top part of the dress came out absolutely spot-on fit-wise, including the elasticated waist. The skirt was a little more tricky and needed a bit of fitting. I made the dress in a size 3 (see Tilly & the Buttons website for detailed sizing info). I could have done without having finished the seams of the skirt as it really needed letting out slightly around my lower hip/thighs. And I did take it in a little near the top hip as it looked as though it was ballooning out a little too much.

I loved choosing the buttons to attach to the sleeves too. I went for bright, almost neon pink coloured buttons which kind of reflect the flowers in the fabric pattern.

It is such a comfy dress too – one which I think would be perfect for going out for a girls lunch.

I really loved sewing up this dress, and am thrilled with how it turned out. I will definitely be making some more Bettines in the future!

I have been excited to stitch up this sweater ever since I bought the fabric on my spending spree at The Handmade Fair on 19th September. It is a super soft quilt effect jersey from Fabric Godmother. I had already spied the pattern for this some time before – so immediately rushed to buy the PDF pattern from Grainline Studio.

This was my second PDF pattern ever used, and have to say – I am a convert! I used to think that I would never veer away from paper patterns. But it was just so easy to print, sellotape together and chop up. I usually tend to trace all of my paper patterns, so I can keep them in perfect condition for using in the future. But this didn’t matter with the PDF! I have it saved on my Google Drive too – so I can access again whenever I want to. I will absolutely be using PDF patterns much more in the future!

And talking about first times, this was my first ever Grainline Studio pattern. And I have to say what a beaut it was to sew up! The design of the pattern itself is very simple, and so I would definitely recommend for those relatively new to sewing.

I’m beginning to get more confident with sewing jersey too. I have also made a Tilly & The Buttons Agnes top which is waiting to be blogged – I just need to find a skirt to match it first.

I used the overlocker for a lot of the stitching – but by no means do you need an overlocker for this pattern. You can just as easily use a regular sewing machine with a zig zag or stretch stitch. I did also make use of a walking foot too, which seemed to help.

The ribbing (from Backstitch) was a dream to sew on – and I always love how it perfectly finishes a garment, and comes out looking really professional. This was my second outing with ribbing – I first used this on my quilted Liberty print Rigel bomber.

And with the design of this sweatshirt being so simple, it was easy to knock it up in just a couple of hours. Magic!

I will definitely be making some more Linden sweatshirts for the Autumn and Winter. And I can’t wait to try the short sleeved version too.